Issue is restoration of credibility of Akali Dal and Panthic institutions
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
The atonement letter submitted to Akal Takht chief
Jathedar Raghbir Singh on Monday by a section of the senior Shiromani Akali Dal
leaders is more than just power struggle in this second oldest political party
in the country constituted in 1920 to articulate Sikh aspirations and
ambitions.
Some of the signatories include 4-time chief of
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Bibi Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh
Chandumajra, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Bhai Manjit Singh,
Gurpartap Singh Wadala and Karnail Singh Panjoli.
Shiromani Akali Dal was earlier headed by party
stalwart Parkash Singh Badal from 1995 onwards who passed on the baton to his
son Sukhbir Singh Badal in 2008. This dynastic succession was unprecedented in the
glorious history of this party associated with the most peaceful struggles in
India before and after the 1947 partition of the country.
The submission of atonement letter seeking forgiveness
for actions under the Akali Dal government headed by Parkash Singh Badal from
2007 to 2017 has only precipitated the deepening crisis that hit the surface
finally with the party candidates forfeiting even security deposits in ten of
the 13 seats in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Shiromani Akali Dal landing
in latest crisis is not unprecedented.
It is pertinent to mention that the party has been in
roller coaster ride since the split in 1999 due to spat between Badal Senior
and then Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Gurcharan Singh
Tohra who represented the parallel power centre in the Akali Dal domain. The
party has been hit by the down trend since 2012 Assembly elections and received
the worst drubbing when it was reduced to just 3 Assembly seats in 2022
elections. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party, once its
alliance partner from 1996 to 2020, got more vote share that the Akali Dal.
At stake is both party credibility and existence
rooted in several actions listed by these leaders in the apology letter while
confessing that they too were the culprits by keeping mum, if not directly
complicit. The main issues listed is withdrawal of police case of blasphemy
against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, cases related to sacrilege of
Guru Granth Sahib and appointment of Sumedh Singh Saini as the state police
chief as his name was associated with brazen human rights violations in the state.
The focus is on four actions and decisions from that period.
The party which for years was known as the voice of
the Sikhs now stands rejected by the very people whom it represented over the
decades. At least two qualitative transformations can be traced that has landed
this party and the Panthic institutions in crisis.
The party shifted its emphasis from Panth to Punjabiat
at 75th anniversary conference at Moga in February 1996 as reflected
in the speech of Badal Senior and successive thrust on this dimension in the
name of amity and communal harmony. This was ideological shift.
The second transformation that was more in the style
of functioning was take over of the party by Sukhbir Singh Badal in 2008 from
preferred to be CEO thereby reducing the party to a company by way of style of functioning.
In 2007, Sukhbir had earned his reputation of a leader
with high management skills after victory in the Assembly elections. This was
the era when politics had already been getting transformed into commerce
impacting entire political spectrum, not just the Akali Dal.
The leader was hailed so long as he was getting
dividends for the shareholders. The leaders who have submitted the apology
letter now were then the shareholders.
The company failed in 2017 and went bankrupt in 2022,
dashing all hopes of these stakeholders in 2024. The shareholders now demand
total overhaul to revive the company.
The first outburst of the Sikhs in particular against
the Akali Dal and the Panthic institutions was related to managing exoneration
of Ram Rahim from Akal Takht. It may be
mentioned that Hukamnama had been issued from Akal Takht in 2007 directing
Sikhs to socially boycott Dera Sacha Sauda followers as pictures of Ram Rahim
surfaced copying dress and actions of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th
Sikh Guru. The case against him was withdrawn five days before Assembly
elections in 2012. It may be mentioned that the election commission only clears
the files sent by the state government. The Akal Takht let off Ram Rahim in
September 2015 and the SGPC defended the exoneration by releasing ads in
newspapers costing about Rs. 90 lakh.
Here is the case of being complicit. It is on record that the five high priests
led by Akal Takht had met at official residence of Parkash Singh Badal before
that exoneration.
The sacrilege at Bargari took place in October 2015
after the Bir of Guru Granth Sahib was reported stolen by a gurdwara at Burj
Jawahar Singh Wala village near Bargari earlier on June 1.
These are the incidents, including inducting retired
director general of police Mohammad Izhar Alam in the Akali Dal, that are part
of the letter with these leaders confessing that they kept mum all the while
and as such, were also the guilty.
The latter is multilayered and multidimensional,
though at the surface it is just an atonement letter.
It puts in the dock not only Sukhbir Singh Badal but
also the institution of Akal Takht and the SGPC for being complicit in all
these cases of omission and commission. It is for this reason that it is not
just an Akali crisis but Panthic crisis.
The problem is that these are not just allegations but
statement of facts. Several of these leaders maintain that they had proposed
way back in 2022 that the party should seeking apology at Akal Takht for what
they term as the misdeeds. The Sikh history is replete with such instances. At
times, the Akal Takht took suo motto notice of violation of Panthic value
system and the most cited example is that of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was
summoned by Akal Takht chief Jathedar Akali Phoola Singh and awarded punishment.
The Maharaja sat down with bare back to get whip-lashed but was forgiven at the
last minute.
The punishment from Akal Takht is by way of service
(sewa) whose aim is to make a person humble by ending his/her ego and
arrogance.
One of the issues that Akal Takht Jathedar now faces
is that of scrutinizing action of this very institution itself along with that
of the SGPC. This would trigger several developments and cause major turbulence
in the Sikh religio-political domain.
There is another dimension. Going by the past record,
such crisis tends to push the Sikh narrative towards far right. In this case,
several Akali leaders before going to Amritsar dropped at the residence of
Amritpal Singh, MP, to meet his parents in Jallupur Khera village near Beas. It
was a courtesy call no doubt but it is the timing that represents the past
trends. Amritpal Singh, who won from Khadoor Sahib with the highest margin in
Punjab, is presently lodged in Dibrugarh jail under NSA and is perceived to
represent hardline.
Would Akal Takht Jathedar now reopen the entire
narrative relating to sacrilege thereby going into the role of those in power
in the government, the SGPC and the Akal Takht?
The crisis is deep with far reaching implications.
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